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“Are you sure you don’t want me to help you get him into bed?”
I rolled my eyes and turned up the TV.
“I got it. I need to get used to doing it anyway. You’re not going to be here all of the time, Harlyn.”
I couldn’t hear what Harlyn said, but ten seconds later, the front door shut and the lock clicked into place.
“She actually decided to leave me alone with you?”
Mave walked into the living room and stood next to the couch. “Pretty sure she was going to stay. I basically pushed her out the door and threw the lock.”
“She’s got her own life to deal with right now. She shouldn’t be so worried about me.”
Mave plopped down on the opposite end of the couch. “She’s your daughter. Can you really blame her for worrying about you?”
I scoffed and flipped through the channels. “You can go to bed, if you want. I’m not tired at all right now.”
Basically only sleeping for the past week had caught up to me. At least, for the time being.
“It’s only nine thirty. I’m not quite ready for bed yet either.”
“You get all settled in?” Not like I could help her if she wasn’t.
“Uh, yeah. I took the spare bedroom at the top of the stairs. We also hooked up walkie talkies so if you need me in the middle of the night, all you have to do is holler.”
“Walkie talkies?” Lord.
“Yeah. Susan bought them when she was out getting groceries.”
I shook my head. “That woman is more than I can handle. I need to pay her for all of the food and also the walkie talkies.”
Mave laughed. “You owe me for all of that. Susan had no problem using my credit card.”
“I’ll get you back for it all. Though, I will say, those walkie talkies are probably a waste of money.”
Mave waved her hand at me. “You can keep them around for when you have grandkids. They’ll love to play with them.”
I turned and looked at her. “You know something I don’t know?”
A smile spread across her lips. “No, but you never know what will happen. She and Remy are in love and young.”
“Young is what worries me.”
I knew that Harlyn had a good head on her shoulders, but even smart people make bad decisions.
“You don’t like Remy?” Mave asked. “I only met him once, but he seemed like a good guy.”
“He is a good guy. I just don’t know if he is good enough for my Harlyn.”
“Don’t all dads think no one is good enough for their daughters?” she asked.
I looked over at her. “You tell me. Was your dad that way with you?”
She fidgeted under my gaze and pointed at the TV. “You wanna find a movie or something to watch?”
I’d rather find out why she avoided my question. “We’re watching Godzilla. It’s on commercial right now.”
It wasn’t the greatest thing to watch but there wasn’t anything else good on.
“All these channels and that is the best thing you can find to watch?”
I wanted to ask her about her dad. Why? I didn’t fucking know. I just needed to find any small tidbit of information I could about Mave. It bothered me that she was here and I knew absolutely nothing about her other than she was a doctor and her last name.
“You can try looking if you want. Though, I’m not into chick shit.”
She grabbed the remote and pointed it at the TV. “I have no idea what you mean by chick shit.”
“Sappy crap that makes you cry and regret all of your life choices.”
She flipped through the channels and laughed when she landed on the home shopping network. “Is this classified as chick shit?”
I rolled my eyes. “No. It’s ten times worse than chick shit.”
She kept flipping through the channels. “How is it that the only thing on to watch right now is Godzilla?” she complained. She ended back on Godzilla and tossed the remote on the couch between us. “I surrender. Godzilla it is, then.”
“Figured you would see things my way.”
She huffed and slouched down into the couch. She kicked her feet up onto the coffee table and folded her arms over her chest. “Shh. If we’re going to watch it, then I at least want to be able to hear it.”
We watched the movie for half an hour before the pain pill I had taken earlier in the afternoon started to wear off.
“What’s wrong?” Mave asked. She sat up and turned her body toward me.
I shifted my legs restlessly and grunted. “Fucking legs are hurting.”
It was the first time I had felt a pain like this. I didn’t know if it was because I had sat up for too long or if the hospital really was giving me a stronger pain pill than the ones I had gotten from the pharmacy.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
I looked up at her and growled. “Pretty sure I just did.”
She rolled her eyes and hopped up from the couch. “I mean why didn’t you tell me when you started feeling the pain? Now we’re gonna be chasing the pain away instead of staying in front of it.”
“Well, I’m sorry, Doc. I don’t like to take pain pills unless I need to.”
She walked into the kitchen, and I leaned down to rub my thigh. This shit was fucking ridiculous.
The bottles of pills rattled and then she walked back into the living room. She held out two pills to me. “Take these.”
She reached over and grabbed the glass of water I had sitting there.
I grabbed the pills and looked down at them. “You sure these are the ones I should be taking?”
She pushed the water toward me and growled, “Pretty sure I know what pills you should be taking. Take the pills or don’t take the pills, Roc. You’re the one who is in pain, not me.”
“Your bedside manner is lacking a little bit, Doc.” I tossed the pills in my mouth and grabbed the water from her. I washed them down and handed the water back to her.
“Well, I’m here to take care of you, not be sweet as candy.”
She walked back into the kitchen, and I listened to her move around. Move around my house.
I hadn’t heard the sounds of a woman in my house for years. Harlyn came over every now and then, but it wasn’t the same as Mave being there.
“Are you ready for bed yet?” she called.
I looked over my shoulder at her. She had her arms crossed over her chest, and the lights in the kitchen were all turned off. “Could be.”
I could always watch TV in bed. I knew Mave had to be exhausted from helping me get settled today.
“I’m taking that as a yes and rolling your ass to bed.” She grabbed the wheelchair that was parked next to the couch and rolled it next to me. “I’ll try not to drop you.”
I looked up at her. “Are you trying to instill trust in me? Cause if you are, I can tell you that it isn’t working for a second.”
“I have an idea.” She parked the wheelchair by the side of the couch, applied the brakes, then pushed back the coffee table. “You’re strong, right?”
She stood directly in front of me with her hands resting on her hips.
“Yeah.”
“Good. If you put your—”
I managed to twist, put my hands on the arms of the chair, and lift myself off the couch. Thankfully, Mave got what I was doing and lifted my legs. I raised myself off the couch, and Mave swung my legs as I plopped down in the chair.
“That what you wanted me to do, Doc?”
“Well, yeah,” she laughed. “Though, next time, give me a bit of a warning.”
“Why? Not like you’re going to drop me or anything,” I snickered.
Mave moved to the back of the chair and unlocked the wheels. “You get even grumpier at night,” she mumbled.
“I’m regular ray of sunshine.” I picked at my shirt. “At least, in this shirt I am.”
Mave pushed me toward the bedroom. “Literally.”
“Bathroom,” I grunted. I had been putting this off since I had gotten home, but I couldn’t ignore it anymore.
“Can do,” she replied cheerfully.
“You’re entirely too cheerful for it being this late,” I pointed out.
“No, that’s just my personality, Roc.” She wheeled me into the bathroom and turned me sideways in front of the toilet.
“This is what you guys were doing in here today,” I mumbled.
There was a thick, padded seat and bars on both sides of the toilet.
“Just wait ‘til you see what we did to the shower. Susan is a regular MacGyver with all of this stuff.”
Mave moved to stand in front of me, and I lifted like I did on the couch and she swung my legs as I transferred from the chair to the toilet. She held my legs, and I pulled my pants down.
“I’m good, Doc.” I was struggling enough with being a cripple. I didn’t need to add on Mave watching me take a leak when I could do it myself.
“Holler when you need me. I’m always here.”
She slipped out of the bathroom, and I was finally alone. Harlyn hadn’t left my side all day, and while I loved my daughter, I also loved my alone time. If I was only going to get that time in the bathroom now, I was going to take it.
I did my business and got the wheelchair back over to where I could put my arms on it and lift myself onto it. My legs followed, and I was able to get fully back in the chair before I called for Mave.
“I’m done.”
The door swung open, and Mave stopped in her tracks when she saw I was sitting in the wheelchair. “What the hell?” she gasped.
“You were the one who said I was strong. Only thing I can’t do is unlock the wheels. I need to wash my hands.”
A wave of exhaustion washed over me, and I dropped my chin to my chest while she walked behind me.
“I’m glad you can do that by yourself, Roc. But you’re sure pale now, and I can tell that was too much for you.”
She was right, but if being exhausted meant I could keep a little bit of my pride, then I was okay with that.
We finished up in the bathroom with my pride fully intact, and for that, I was thankful.
Mave helped me get into the bed, and I pulled my shirt off over my head.
“You want to take the shorts off?” she asked.
I shook my head. “I’ll be good in these. Just help me swing my legs in.”
Mave pulled back the covers and swung my legs into the bed. “Good?” she asked.
She pulled the covers over me and I laid my head down on the pillow.
“Great.”
“You’re such a grump,” she laughed.
A grump was not what I intended to sound like. I was exhausted and didn’t have much energy left. “Hit the lights on the way out, Doc.”
My eyes were heavy, and I knew it was only going to be minutes before I was passed out.
“Walkie talkie is on the nightstand. Call me if you need anything.” Mave grabbed the TV remote and laid it next to me. “And here's the remote in case you wanted to watch Godzilla.”
“I’m gonna watch the back of my eyelids for a few hours, Doc.”
She laughed and moved to the light switch by the door. “Night, Roc. Day one done, only about forty-four left to go before you’re back to normal. See ya in the morning.”
“Night,” I grunted. I relaxed into the pillow and sighed.
Forty-four days was a long fucking time ‘til I got these damn casts off my legs. No way I was going to keep counting because I knew that was going to end up driving me crazy.
I needed to focus on the fact I was finally home, and things would only get better from here. I was getting stronger every day and nothing was going to keep me from getting back on the track and back to work.
Nothing.
*
